A whopping 5% of electricity in the US now goes to phantom power -- the power sucked by your plugged in gadgets and even power strips even when you're not using the energy. The only solution currently is to unplug your power strip every night. Perhaps in the long run some inventor will come up with a solution that more people can deal with. But for the moment please unplug before you sleep and don't leave your gadgets on sleep mode.

From dad -- The scary side of fog: 100-car pileups.

If you're looking for a harrowing real-life scare this Halloween, look no further than the moving experience of four firefighters who narrowly escaped death in the SoCal inferno.

The most original way I've ever encountered to talk about education.

Why do I crave chocolate? It's the bacteria living in my stomach. I have to feed them what they want. Seriously. Although I wonder why they get hungrier when I'm stressed.

After reading this NYT article on a visit to Darjeeling, I really want to go on a tea vacation. Like wine tasting but in the Indian mountains with prayer flags flying and more modest accommodations.

A horrible tunnel fire occurred in LA. One of my biggest road nightmares since watching What Dreams May Come.

Alix Bryan has completed her journey around the US in the shape of a peace sign, after riding 11,000 miles (almost the distance from the North to the South pole) on a little scooter. Read about her message at her blog.

Anyone think of asking Twombly whether the lipstick on his painting in France is an improvement or really worth a 2 million euro lawsuit?

It seems that I have found in the Paris bureau of the New York Times a fellow religious tourist. Just watch the stunning photo montage accompanying her article "Worshiping Paris". Her article reveals another connection between myself and Paris: Keith Haring's foundation gave copies of a triptych he created after being diagnosed with AIDS to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and the city of Paris, which placed its triptych in St.-Eustache.

Perhaps next time she'll also discuss the draw of the organs and bells in a bit more detail. It's interesting that despite their overall absence from her article, their sounds are one of the most noticeable and memorable aspects of the video.

I guess the problem of "big babies" is widespread...

In other news, biofuel from cows. My favorite line is "To date no viable method has been devised to capture this gas as it erupts from either end of the cow."

It may not be so bad to be packaged up by Garfield and exiled to Abu Dhabi any more. With Louvre and Guggenheim posts going up and a CSU-educated computer-savvy princess managing the economy, the place is shaping up.

Distributed human computing is digitizing documents and manuscripts as fast as the Internet Archive can supply them. Thanks, Cornell!

Saffron Revolution?

The latest census gives interesting information about the immigrant population of the US, and it does not distinguish between citizens and illegal immigrants. To nobody's surprise, "California led the nation in immigrants, at 27 percent of the state's population, and in people who spoke a foreign language at home, at 43 percent." 43% even surprises me, although I suppose my being in the other 57% might not have given me a very good perspective.

Speaking of illegal immigrants, here's another sad story, made even more grimace-worthy by the fact that federal prosecutors offered him a deal: He could take $10,000 of the original cash seized ($59,000 he'd made from 11 years of dishwashing to buy land and build a house for his mother and sisters in Guatemala), plus $9,000 in donations (only a fraction of what's been donated) from legions of sympathetic supporters as long as he didn't talk publicly and left the country immediately.

The news that beats all for me, however, is the dramatic political unrest and violent suppression of protest in Burma. The first article I read about isolated pockets of protest earlier this month dismissed the events as feeble. This seemed strange to me; protesters putting themselves on the line probably wouldn't do so if an underground movement hadn't already formed that would eventually build on what they were doing. Otherwise why protest at this point in history? Shore up your resources for real results.

Well, it has turned into something major. Wikipedia in its new role as current events mirror offers some highlights in choppy prose: "As of 22 September 2007, the Buddhist monks have withdrawn spiritual services from all military personnel in a symbolic move that is seen as very powerful in such a deeply religious country as Myanmar.... On September 24, 20,000 monks and nuns led 30,000 people in a protest march from the golden Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, past the offices of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party... On Saturday, monks marched to greet Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest. On Sunday, about 150 nuns joined the marchers. By this time, the marchers' numbers had swelled to 100,000 protesters."

Now the government has cut public internet access, making outside perceptions of what might be going on even darker. Protesters, students, journalists shot at close range, bodies piled in the streets... When will someone, anyone, overthrow the junta and bring a successful end to the so-called Saffron Revolution? And where did it get that name?

And who in the world has been vandalizing the Wikipedia article on Myanmar?

Real estate more profitable than sex?

The landscape of Amsterdam is about to change. About a third of Amsterdam's red-lit windows for prostitutes will disappear from the city center as one of the main brothel owners is set to sell his empire to a real estate company for about 25 million euros ($35 million). A funny quote if ever I read one: "Mayor Job Cohen said he had no plans to rid Amsterdam of prostitution but the concentration of sex in the city center was too high."

So my issues with fashion-deprived men could have been solved if Ashton Kutcher had just appeared a bit earlier on the scene. Now I know to pick my date like my handbag. But what if I have incurably bad taste in handbags?

solar-powered cruises

Sydney got it first, and San Francisco's awaiting its order for a new ferry to Alcatraz. Aussie Robert Dane's invention, however, goes beyond revolutionizing cargo, cruises, and luxury yachts. According to him, "for the cost of one conventional battleship, you can have 8,000 of these drones patrolling the seas." Why it's making news today long after its debut at the Sydney Olympics, I don't know. I suppose our ears are perked for the word "green."

Think practicing is repetitive? Be glad you're not the woman in a Chinese toy inspection facility whose job is to stick a plastic spoon in a baby doll's mouth 10,000 times to test for unsafe wear and tear.

the 40th summer of love

50,000 gathered in GG Park to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the summer of love. Too bad I missed both the original and the commemoration. It sounds like there was a great crowd. "San Francisco police said the gathering proceeded harmoniously, with no major incidents reported. 'Just nothing but love,' police Sgt. Mark Im said."

Steeplechasing as a sport? Sounds like what I do, although it's not even remotely like what I do.

In the vein of great architects like van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, Michael Graves is putting out his own distinctive furnishings -- such as inexpensive clothes drying racks available exclusively at Target. His logo looks just like his buildings. I don't like his buildings, but I'm pleased with my new drying rack and tie/belt hanger. No more undershirts hanging from every extrusion in my room. And no more wasting energy and quarters on the dryer. But now I have to figure out when in the washing cycle to manually pour in the fabric softener...

happy 25th!

Happy 25th birthday to the CD, which is only one year my elder but outnumbers me by about 200 billion.

Cappadocia -- another reason to visit Turkey. After the apparent vegetarian friendliness of its cuisine, as I discovered in Dorset.

Anyone for wine tasting in Oklahoma or South Dakota? The number of wineries in the US has more than doubled since 2000.

Looks, I'm in the news!